Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) review: Alexa’s flagship speaker

The Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) is Amazon’s flagship smart speaker. While the Echo Dot Max stretches into living room territory, the Echo Studio aims to own it outright. With a redesigned, more compact body, support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, and a built-in smart home hub, it promises bigger, more immersive sound without leaving the Alexa ecosystem.

But does the smaller design still deliver the powerful, “room-filling performance” Amazon claims? Let’s find out in this Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) review.

What I like about the Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen)

The Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) keeps its signature cylindrical shape but trims the footprint compared to the original model. The knit fabric exterior and minimalist controls give it a clean, modern look that blends into most living rooms. It feels more like a serious home speaker than a decorative smart assistant. Inside, Amazon fits a 3.75-inch high-excursion woofer and three 2.25-inch full-range drivers, arranged to fire left, right, and upward for height effects. In other words, this isn’t just a single front-firing smart speaker with bigger marketing claims. It’s a proper multi-driver setup built to handle more than just background music.

The controls are straightforward and familiar if you’ve used an Echo before. The physical buttons are angled along the upper face of the speaker and include volume up, volume down, and a microphone mute button, so you don’t have to rely entirely on voice commands. Pressing the mic button electronically disconnects the microphones, which is still one of the simplest and most reassuring privacy features Amazon offers. The LED light ring provides clear visual feedback when Alexa is listening or muted, and you can tap the top of the speaker to pause or resume playback without saying a word.

The Alexa app gives you direct control over the Echo Studio (2nd Gen). From the device page, you can adjust volume, manage Bluetooth connections, enable Do Not Disturb, and access Drop In. In the audio settings, there’s a simple three-band EQ along with a Dolby Virtualizer toggle that activates when playing supported Dolby Atmos content. You can also set alarms, build routines, and use temperature or presence detection through Omnisense. It’s practical and built for daily use rather than deep audio tweaking.

On the connectivity side, the Echo Studio (2nd Gen) supports Wi-Fi 6E for streaming, multi-room audio, smart home control, and Alexa Home Theater pairing. It also supports Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless playback, though Bluetooth audio is limited to SBC. The built-in smart home hub supports Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, so you can connect compatible devices directly without a separate bridge. There are no wired audio inputs, so playback is entirely wireless.

The Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) is the best-sounding Amazon speaker I’ve tested so far. On “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” by Olivia Dean from Apple Music’s “Made for Spatial Audio” playlist, vocals have a strong presence and excellent clarity, sitting slightly forward in the mix with clearly audible reverb that adds convincing spatial depth. Instrument separation is also impressive for a single enclosure. The piano, rhythm guitar, drums, and background vocals are easy to distinguish, and the hi-hats remain clean without sounding sharp. It’s not a true left-and-right stereo setup, but there’s a noticeable sense of width and left-to-right separation that makes your music feel larger than the cabinet itself.

Bass strength is also solid, especially with a slight boost in the app, adding presence without overwhelming the mix. Kick drums have a good impact, and the Studio maintains good bass precision at moderate listening levels. Up to about 70% on the volume slider, it remains free of audible distortion and maintains its tonal balance. Beyond that point, DSP begins to rein things in and bass strength tapers slightly to maintain control. While Dolby Atmos and spatial processing add meaningful immersiveness with supported content, a stereo pair would still provide a more convincing sense of width and left-to-right separation if you happen to have a larger living room.

What I don’t like about the Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen)

The Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) still has no wired audio inputs. There’s no 3.5mm jack, no optical input, and no USB audio, so you’re fully committed to wireless playback. For a speaker positioned as a living room centerpiece, that feels limiting if you want to connect legacy gear directly. There’s also no built-in battery. The Echo Studio must remain plugged into wall power at all times, which limits placement flexibility and rules out portable use. This is clearly designed as a stationary home speaker, not something you move from room to room.

In my testing, voice recognition wasn’t always consistent with song requests. Asking for “Back in Black” by AC/DC occasionally triggered playback of “Old Thing Back” featuring Ja Rule instead. Those two tracks couldn’t be more different. While it doesn’t happen every time, it highlights that Alexa can still struggle with specific artist-title combinations. It’s a minor frustration, but it interrupts the experience when you just want a particular track to play.

Should you buy the Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen)

You should buy the Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) if you want the most capable smart speaker in Amazon’s lineup. It delivers stronger bass and better instrument separation than the Echo Dot models, making for a more enjoyable listening experience overall. In a living room or larger shared space, it works well as a central Alexa device that can handle both smart home control and more engaging music playback.

Otherwise, if you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem, the Apple HomePod (2nd Gen) ($289.99 at Best Buy) is the closest alternative. It also supports spatial audio and delivers good bass strength from a compact enclosure, but it’s more expensive and works best with Apple devices. The Echo Studio offers broader smart home hub support and costs less, making it the more flexible choice for most households.

That said, this is still a smart speaker first. It’s designed to integrate into your daily routine, control devices, and stream music within the Alexa ecosystem. If you’re looking for a dedicated hi-fi setup with wired inputs, true stereo separation from a single cabinet, or portability, this isn’t it.

You should skip it if you need analog inputs, battery power, or the flexibility to connect legacy gear. Bluetooth is limited to SBC, and playback is entirely wireless. But if you want the biggest and most immersive Echo speaker Amazon offers without stepping outside the Alexa ecosystem, the Echo Studio (2nd Gen) makes a clear case for itself.

Amazon Echo Studio (2nd Gen) review: FAQs